diers. By such vexations as these my temper was sorely tried, and if it had not been for my friend, Professor Diemer, who, by his mild manner, succeeded in allaying the storm which my unyielding disposition frequently provoked on the part of our oppressors, I know not how I might have fared. For when nature formed me, she made my backbone very stiff, so that bowing and cringing are by no means accomplishments in which I excel.
At length the day dawned on which the great Napoleon himself was expected to honour Leipsic with his presence. He did not appear, however, until three days after the time appointed; and meanwhile the chief authorities of the town were moved about from place to place, and kept almost continually on their feet. We had, indeed, a most weary time of it during these three days. At length, the great man arrived, and gave us an audience in the King of Saxony's palace in the market-place. Here the domineering character of the man displayed itself most conspicuously. He came burning with wrath against the university, and almost the first words he uttered were—"where are the deputies of the university?" My colleagues and myself immediately came forward, when he overwhelmed us with a torrent of invective, on account of some students who had enlisted in the corps of Luckow's volunteers—as if the students had been schoolboys, who could not take a single step without the permission of the Senatus Academicus. He then turned to the mercantile authorities and demanded—"How many millionaires have you in Leipsic?" (he alluded to francs, but those interrogated thought that he meant dollars;) and when it was answered him that there was not one, he clapped has hand on his pocket with a sarcastic leer, as much as to say—I'll find out a method to make them render up their coin. Avarice and the lust of dominion seemed to be the only passions of his soul.
When the audience was at an end, and Napoleon was departing, one of my colleagues ventured to step forward to address him. The Emperor started back, apparently doubtful what the intentions of my friend might be. For so timorous was this great man grown, that he lived in the constant dread of assassination; and when I was at Königsberg I remember his once leaping out of a boat in the middle of the Pregel, and making for the shore, because he had observed a movement among the crowd upon the opposite bank of the river, and imagined that an attempt was about to be made upon his precious life. But on the present occasion, when he discovered that the professor had no dagger in his bosom, and merely wished to mollify the tiger with a few civil words—he grinned scornfully in his face, and then turned his back upon him. And this was the great man who had made the world his footstool, and 'Whom all the nations worshipped as a perfect god! To me he appeared to be nothing but a drill. sergeant, who had a certain knack of railing the rabble into obedience to his will. Neither in his demeanour nor in his language was there the smallest trace of dignity or grace. Terror was his only talisman.
The colossus was now tottering on his pedestal, but he had not yet fallen. He collected his strength for one last desperate effort, and assembled all his forces in the neighbourhood of Leipsic. My house was in the outskirts of the town, and commanded a prospect of a large portion of the battle-field. Cannon balls and hand-grenades flew around us on all sides, and many peaceful inhabitants were struck dead in the streets. The hot tide of battle then set in upon the city itself, and raged furiously within its narrow precincts. But the brave Allies were at length victorious, and before nightfall I had the satisfaction of witnessing from my windows the flight of the discomfited foe. And what a flight it was! Pell- mell they went—neck and heels, by score into the ditches which intercepted their ignominious retreat. Napoleon himself escaped by blowing up a bridge in his rear, and thereby consigning to death or captivity many of his devoted train. Did I not burn with the desire that my hand had been then upon his throat! "Voici," I would have shouted "voici, scelerat! le Recteur de l'université de Leipsic qui vous avez si maltraité! The retreat of several thousand Frenchmen was cut off by the waters of the Elster. They surrendered at discretion to a company of Prussian jagers: and when I
